This article in The Scotsman noting how some African slaves taken to plantations in the Carolinas came to use Gaelic, not English, as their common language is fascinating. What other influences came unexpectedly from Gaelic Scotland to African America?

Can Hong Kong use the Cantonese language to extend its influence deeper into China and elsewhere? The SCMP considers.

JSTOR Daily looks at the history of the enslavement of Native Americans in early colonial America, something often overlooked by later generations.

This video shared by Language Log, featuring two Amazon Echos repeating texts to each other and showing how these iterations change over time, is oddly fascinating.

At Lawyers, Guns and Money, Erik Loomis is quite clear about the good sense of Will Wilkinson’s point that controversy over “illegal” immigration is actually deeply connected to an exclusivist racism that imagines Hispanics to not be Americans.

Lingua Franca, at the Chronicle of Higher Education, looks at the uses of the word “redemption”, particularly in the context of the Olympics.

Marginal Revolution makes a case for Americans to learn foreign languages on principle. As a Canadian who recently visited a decidedly Hispanic New York, I would add that Spanish, at least, is one language quite potentially useful to Americans in their own country.

Drew Rowsome writes about the striking photographs of Olivier Valsecchi.

Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that, in the 2030s, gravitational wave observatories will be so sensitive that they will be able to detect black holes about to collide years in advance.

Towleroad lists festival highlights for New Orleans all over the year.

Window on Eurasia notes how recent changes to the Russian education system harming minority languages have inspired some Muslim populations to link their language to their religion.

Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell makes the case that Jeremy Corbyn, through his strength in the British House of Commons, is really the only potential Remainder who is in a position of power.

NewNowNext notes the divorce of out gay Mormon Josh Weed from his wife, after they realized their marriage wasn’t working. To his belated credit, he seems to be quite upset at the way that his personal story was used to justify homophobia.

At The New Yorker, Michael LaPointe celebrates James McCourt’s 1993 novel about the AIDS epidemic, Time Remaining.

Towleroad notes the odd and harmful refusal of the Publix grocery store chain to let its insurance companies cover Truvada prescriptions, for PrEP.

Drew Rowsome reviewsUpstairs Inferno, a recent documentary about a fire in a New Orleans gay bar in 1973 that killed dozens and its aftermath.

R.M. Vaughan reports for The Globe and Mail about the new Hall of Justice poster program in Toronto, aimed to popularize LGBTQ heroes.

The idea of making the Toronto Islands an officially designated bird sanctuary makes sense on a lot of levels. The Toronto Starreports.

The community of Saanich, on Vancouver Island, is expected to host the biggest marijuana farm in Canada come legalization, making many there unhappy. Global News reports.

Trump tariffs may doom a pulp and paper mills in the western Newfoundland city of Corner Brook. CBC reports.

Wiredfeatures this heartbreaking choices facing the inhabitants of the Louisiana town of Isle de Jean Charles as their island submerges beneath rising waters. What will they do? Where will they go? Can the community survive?

CityMetric tells the story about how people on the Channel Island of Jersey wanted to build a bridge to France, why this didn’t happen, and how this relates to Brexit.